This study traces the history of the Malaysian Football League development from semi-pro to professional from 1989 until 2011. The discussions begin by examining how the roots of the football league in Malaysia began to form until it reached professional level. Football in Malaysia began to gain serious ground with the establishment of the HMS Malaya Cup in 1921. It grew when the semi-pro league appeared in 1989 as a preparation before entering the professional league. During that period, there were several changes to the league's system and format, in addition to the emergence of several major issues and matters that significantly impacted the local football landscape. The research continues by discussing the changes that took place during the semi-pro and professional eras in the Malaysian football league. Both went through a process that is very important in ensuring that the league's journey process runs smoothly. The changes that occur from one period to another indirectly lead to critical changes to the Malaysian football league, which includes relevant aspects of a professional league. The developments during the transition of these two eras also impacted several entities, such as the national squad, competing teams and clubs, players, supporters, and media. The study also highlights professionalism trends among the major football leagues in Malaysia, England, and Japan. It must be recognized that England and Japan appear as two prosperous examples of countries applying professionalism in their football league. The comparison among the three leagues in this country focuses on some big things in the development aspect of a professional league. The findings of this research will help in understanding the history of the Malaysian football league in a fresher and new narrative.

Since the 1990s, the interaction between the dominant Muslim community and other faiths in Bangladesh has become prevalent. In response to this scenario, this study investigates inter-religious relations among religious communities in Chittagong, Bangladesh, which is known for its religious diversity and historical significance. The research aims to examine the complexities of cooperation, collaboration, conflicts, and peaceful coexistence within inter-religious interactions. It also sheds light on the efforts to foster inter-community understanding and harmony. For the study, the researcher employs a qualitative method in which in-depth interviews are conducted with selected participants, such as representatives of religious scholars, cultural activists, and community leaders. The scripts are critically analyzed to extract the factors contributing to religious conflicts. The study on inter-religious interaction is significant for Bangladesh’s peacebuilding and social cohesion efforts. By uncovering the dynamics of inter-religious relations, this study contributes to a more inclusive societal framework that transcends religious divisions, promoting mutual understanding and unity among diverse religious groups. Moreover, it identifies challenges that hinder development and, at the same time, offers strategies to overcome these challenges. Therefore, this study shows potential for cultivating harmonious interaction that exceeds boundaries and enriches the nation’s social well-being. Focusing on Chittagong, the study provides context-specific perceptions into the multi-faceted circumstances that shape inter-religious relations. The findings contribute significantly to the concept of religious coexistence and inter-community relations. Consequently, the outcomes provide valuable insights for policymakers, religious institutes, and human rights organizations to develop context-specific strategies. Keywords: Inter-religious relations, Religious diversity, Chittagong, Bangladesh, Religious coexistence

The instances of child abuse in Malaysia are deeply concerning, with 6,770 reported cases of children in need of care and protection in 2022, and a heart-breaking toll of 220 children losing their lives due to abuse over the past 5 years. This study delves into the intricate concept of ḥaḍanah (child custody) within Islamic jurisprudence, thoroughly examining its causes and impact on children. This study addresses the abuse of ḥaḍanah 's rights: dissecting the concept itself, uncovering the causes and repercussions of child abuse, and proposing solutions from an Islamic standpoint. Furthermore, by specifically analysing child abuse cases in Malaysia, this research offers pragmatic insights into the complexities surrounding custody matters. It employs a descriptive approach by gathering definitions from classical and modern jurists and practitioners. The analytical methods cover a wide range of activities, such as literature reviews, statistical analyses, regulatory reviews, and social and ethical evaluations. Fieldwork involves interviewing policy-oriented lawyers and doctors to identify major issues, and suggest directions for improvement in child welfare that could arise in child custody cases. The goal is to uncover the underlying causes of child abuse and its profound effects on children. The primary causes identified for child abuse in Malaysia predominantly arise from family disputes, financial problem and alcoholism, thus exerting significant physical and psychological impacts on children. Moreover, the abuse extends its repercussions beyond the individual, contributing to broader societal challenges. Ultimately, this study strives to provide vital insights that can guide parents, children, policymakers, and authorities in effectively combating child custody abuses, ensuring the safety and well-being of children.

This study examines the socio-cultural dimensions of interactions between British officers and Malay communities in Perak and Kedah from 1875 to the 1940s, with a particular focus on everyday settings within the colonial administration of British Malaya. Through comprehensive analysis, it explores how British officers implemented policies by adapting Malay customs and governance into their colonial administrative frameworks, as exemplified by the Residential system in Perak and the Advisory system in Kedah. These two states serve as case studies to highlight differences in the British colonial approaches and Malay responses, which ranged from cooperation to subtle resistance. This dissertation argues that the British strategically facilitated their colonial administration in British Malaya through the development of the Malay Civil Service (MCS) and the Malay Administrative Service (MAS), thereby accommodating Malay customs in their engagement with local communities and reshaping Malay society in the process. By emphasising everyday interactions and the role of Malay traditions, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of colonial governance and expands the socio-cultural historiography of British Malaya.

Neologisms, which are newly coined words or phrases, are increasingly prevalent in contemporary language usage due to rapid technological changes. This linguistic phenomenon mirrors the rapid adoption of technology in various aspects of society. For instance, as reported by Wok and Mohamed (2017), 90% of the total population in Malaysia are reportedly users of various social media platforms. Understanding the structure and classification of compound neologisms is crucial for linguistic analysis, as it sheds light on the creative processes underlying language formation and evolution (Barrot, 2020). Hence, this paper aims to identify the compound neologisms created by young X users in Malaysia and determine how those words are classified based on the categories by Bisetto and Scalise (2005), who categorised compound words based on the relationship of the constituents and according to the presence or absence of the head word. The research method employed is content analysis where all the data were retrieved from the postings of 30 Malaysian X users from January to March 2023. The results show that compound neologisms are mostly exocentric. This contrasts with Bauer’s (2008) idea that most English compound words are endocentric. Furthermore, the newly created compound words are more likely to be under the category of subordinate type than the other two types, attributive and coordinate. There are also compound words that do not fit under any of the proposed categories. These compounds may combine elements in ways that defy easy categorisation. Many of these words are created in a new or innovative grammatical and semantic way that do not align with the traditional structures (Gruda, Haimovich & Sullivan, 2023). Moreover, certain compound neologisms have complex structures that involve multiple layers of meaning or relationships between the constituent parts. These compounds do not fit neatly into the simple existing categories. Despite encountering instances where compound neologisms challenge traditional categorisation, the findings underscore the ongoing evolution of language beyond conventional boundaries and also suggest promising avenues for future research.

This thesis examines the question of cooperation between Muslims and non~Muslims. It develops a consistent framework that explains areas, purpose and restrictions of cooperation with non-Muslims. To answer this question the following questions are crucial to be introduced: does the global nature of Islam mean an endless effort to expand the rule of Islam on the Earth by all means? Does it mean an endless effort to propagate and support Islamic Universal Values on the Earth? Do political principles in the Quran consider the existence of political powers other than the Islamic or do they call for elimination of any non-Muslim political power? As analytic research, this study depends on the Quran, the Sunnah and contributions of Muslim scholars on the issue. The research starts by deducing political principles from the Quran and the Hadith and then constructs a conceptual framework on them. Ta'awun, tadafu', wala, ikhtilaf, tadawul, and fasad present a set of interrelated political concepts analyzed and employed in constructing this perspective. A deeper reading in the Quran and the Sunnah shows that the ultimate mission of any Islamic State is to expand and support Universal Islamic Values and not to enforce the rule of Islam. The Quran considers ikhtilaf disagreement, tadawul rotation of victory, and tadafu' defence as three sunan social laws in human life. On those bases, the study ends that cooperation with non-Muslims is encouraged, as it is constructed on virtue and piety for maintenance of life and freedom of religion, as long as non-Muslims are committed to those Islamic values, life and freedom of religion.

Family communication patterns (FCP) play a significant role in shaping various aspects of children's development, including their educational trajectories. Research indicates that the way families communicate can significantly influence children’s inclination to stay in school or drop out. Therefore, this study will investigate the impact of family communication patterns on school dropout intention among Norol Iman Chroy Metry High School (NICHS) students in Cambodia. This study is guided by six objectives: (1) To identify the level of conversation orientation and conformity orientation among Norol Iman Chroy Metry High School (NICHS) students, (2) To measure the level of academic resilience among NICHS students, (3) To determine the level of school dropout intention among NICHS students, (4) To determine the relationship between conversation orientation, conformity orientation, academic resilience and school dropout intention among NICHS students, (5) To identify the mediating effect of academic resilience on the relationship between conversation orientation and school dropout intention among NICHS students, and (6) To identify the mediating effect of academic resilience on the relationship between conformity orientation and school dropout intention among NICHS students. This study employed a quantitative research design, using a survey method with a questionnaire as the instrument for data collection. Through the use of simple random sampling, a total of 243 students participated in this study. Findings show that family communication patterns play an important role in shaping academic resilience and school dropout intention among NICHS students. Academic resilience is found to mediate the relationship between family communication patterns and school dropout intention. These findings support previous research by confirming that family communication patterns influence students’ school dropout intentions. More importantly, this study extends the understanding of FCP by highlighting how conversation orientation and conformity orientations function within the Cambodian context, particularly among high school students, where cultural, familial, and educational dynamics may differ from those in previously studied settings.

This study aims to derive guiding principles from Surah al-Kahf to provide an encompassing framework for Muslim youth in Canada to preserve and develop their Islamic identity. Muslims in Canada are a unique population with an array of experiences and backgrounds united by a shared Islamic identity. Although Canada is often recognised as a multicultural nation allowing religious freedoms on a personal level, this multiculturalism has been criticised as being extremely liberal, accommodating the needs of religious minorities only if they confom1 to a Western secular context of religion. This is in direct contrast to the Islamic identity defined by its salient characteristics of a fundamental belief system, a united link to a global ummah, and an encompassing nature, making it inherently influential in all aspects of a Muslim's private and public life. The changing dynamic of the Muslim population in Canada and the importance of identity development at an early age results in the primary focus on Muslim youth. Muslim youth in Canada face a variety of threats in preserving and developing their Islamic identity. The most significant threats include peer pressure, assimilation, materialism, corrupt desires, religious doubt, loss of religion in society, and Islamophobia. The study begins with an introduction to the Islamic identity, an evaluation of the current state of Muslim youth in Canada, and background of Surah al-Kahf . Then, an inductive approach was used to analyse the four major narratives of the Sirah: the companions of the cave, the companion of the two gardens, Musa and Khidr, and the narrative of Dhu al-Qamayn. This was done through a methodological process of gathering, comparing, and analysing the discussions of the mufassirun in both classical and modern tafsir in relation to the four main narratives. Through this process, the study extracted seven guiding principles for developing the Islamic identity of Muslim youth in Canada. These guiding principles deal specifically with the major threats faced by Muslim youth in preserving their Islamic identity. Through the first narrative, the companions of the cave, four guiding principles were extracted relating to the threats of peer pressure, assimilation, and Islamophobia. The second narrative of the companion of the two gardens provided a principle in dealing with materialism and corrupt desires. The third narrative of Musa and Khidir was the source for a principle dealing with the threats of religious doubt and the loss of religion in society. The fourth and final narrative of Dhu al-Qarnayn personified the application of all the previous principles illustrating the importance of providing the Muslim youth with an exemplary role model. These seven guiding principles provide applicable solutions that can be used to protect and develop the Islamic identity against specific threats. This study serves as a crucial step in finding solutions lo the challenges and threats faced hy Muslim youth as minorities in preserving their Islamic identity. These principles. If followed sincerely. can empower Muslim youth by transforming them into confident and successful leaders through their Islamic identity. ensuring their success in botl1 this world and the hereafter.

This dissertation attempts to explore Ibn Taymiyyah's thought on the involvement of divine predetermination in human acts. The researcher used the descriptive qualitative method to gather the required data and the deductive and comparative approaches to analyse the data related to Islamic theological groups, namely the Qadarites, Jabarites, and Ash'arites. These three groups dominate the debate on the relation of human agency to divine determination. However, they address the issues in different ways. The Jabarites believe in determinism and deny effort, while the Qadarites believe in libertarian freedom and therefore, deny predetermination. The study finds lbn Taymiyyah strictly refuting the Qadarites, Jabarites, and Ash'arites. He, however, adopts a few selected arguments from these three groups and then builds his own methodology in an attempt to provide a compatibility between divine determination and human choice.

This thesis analyzes the strategic partnership between Indonesia and China during the administration of President Susi lo Bambang Yudhoyono and also assesses its impact on Indonesia's political. security and defense, economic. and society and culture development. This study is guided by a conceptual framework on strategic partnership composed of four factors, which arc politics, strategy. economy, and geopolitics. Given these factors. there are at least three types of strategic partnership: political partnership. defense or military partnership. and economic partnership. This qualitative study used documents. agreements, and speeches of leaders as the main sources of data. This thesis is organized into five chapters discussing the nature of Indonesia-China partnership and its economic, social. political. and strategic impact on Indonesia. The findings of this study are the following: ( 1) The progressive growth of the Indonesian economy is the result of the partnership; (2) the Indonesian defense and security has strengthened; (3) there is increased political cooperation between Indonesia and China, and; ( 4) there is an improvement in Indonesia-China socio-cultural relations.

Home language exposure is a key factor in the language acquisition of ESL learners, enhancing development and facilitating learning among bilinguals. However, its impact varies across language groups and learner demographics, raising questions about the influence of bilingual home environments on language acquisition. This study investigates the English morphological acquisition of Malay-English bilingual secondary school students from three distinct home language environments: English-dominant, Malay-dominant, and equally dominant in both languages. Using Processability Theory, data were collected via parental questionnaires and elicitation tasks. Findings show that participants reach advanced stages of morphological acquisition (Sentence Procedures and Phrasal Procedures) even without having English as the main home language. While home language exposure alone does not determine English acquisition, factors like parental support, family interaction, and available resources significantly enhance learning. This study provides valuable insights for parents of bilingual learners, researchers, and policymakers in understanding and supporting bilingual language acquisition.

The objective of this research is to study the Malaysia-Türkiye relations during Mahathir's first premiership (1981-2003). This research aims to address overlooked aspects of historical relations and clarify how these past connections have laid the foundation for Malaysia-Türkiye relations in the 21st century. This research examines archival materials, government publications, reports and newspapers, and it depends heavily on the said primary sources. Studies on Malaysia-Türkiye relations had not yet received enough attention. Existing studies only give a brief explanation and the relations are often branded as “low level” or “not quite as exciting”. This is an under-researched period for the bilateral relations between Malaysia and Türkiye due to domestic and regional matters that should be prioritised and the nature of foreign policy adopted by both nations. This research studies the origin of Pan-Islamism and its appeal to understand the common ground that binds Malaysia and Türkiye to sustain and develop relations at a bilateral and multilateral framework. Through their foreign policy, this research discovers that the predominant factor to their growing relations is Islam. This research also analyses diplomatic, economic and technical, cultural and defence relations. On a multilateral level, Malaysia-Türkiye relations and contributions were most evident in their Muslim solidarity within the United Nations (UN) and the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). This research finds that their bilateral cooperation in the Developing 8 (D-8) between 1997 and 2003 were limited as the member states often acted collectively. While this research does comply with the claim that the relations were low in comparison with other countries, it is unbefitting to profess it as unexciting.

This thesis examines the portrayal of courtship and marriage in female-centric folktales from two Asian countries, which are Puteri Gunung Ledang from Malaysia and Kaguya-hime no Monogatari from Japan. In these two folktales, Puteri Gunung Ledang and Kaguya-hime perceive marriage as nonessential. This research uses the digital humanities framework through a multimodal sentiment method to study representations of courtship and marriage in each folktale retelling. Alongside the sentiment method, the princesses’ attitudes towards courtship and marriage are analysed based on their emotions and body language, following Robert Plutchik’s Wheels of Emotions (1982), which comprises eight primary emotions that expand into 24 other emotions. The sentiment and emotion analyses are significant in providing insights into Puteri Gunung Ledang and Kaguya-hime’s representations in the retellings, as well as their perceptions of marriage and courtship. Based on the princesses’ representations and perceptions, this thesis explores the cultural relevance of the folktales in portraying marriage that varies among different retellings. This thesis is principally informed by cultural materialism theory, which is used to observe the significance of the princesses’ perceptions of marriage and its relationship in positioning of the women’s roles in marriage. This thesis also aims to identify parallels in the folktales’ use of the suitor test motif and its relationship to the “women-empowering” elements rooted in the histories and societies of Malaysia and Japan.

This paper aims to discuss and understand one of Isma'il Raji Al-Faruqi's legacy, inter-religious dialogue, and its relevance with today's religious life and conflicts resolution specifically the inter-religious dispute of GKI Yasmin in Bogor, Indonesia. It focuses on the general religious culture in Indonesia and the many written reports of the disputes' legality and social impact. This research seeks to find the facts of the case directly through legitimate and authoritative sources by examining the sequence and causes of the dispute and understand the major role and impact of religious leaders in the community. It also explores the role of inter-religious dialogue between the two religions in order to prevent similar conflicts in the future. The result indicates that there seems to be a disparity to be filled when it comes to methods of resolution, but the religious intolerance and ongoing tension between the two parties involved are strongly related to the ignorance and unawareness of each other's religions and beliefs and the law that governs the society. The presence and role of inter-religious dialogue, are analyzed and discussed in this paper, especially its part in resolving and preventing these aforementioned conflicts by bridging religious groups through dialogue and developing a safe, peaceful environment for religious life in Indonesia.

This study investigates the production of English stops by Kelantanese Malay university students and how their speech may differ from Standard English. A total of 30 students majoring in English Language and Literature (BENL) and Islamic Studies (IRK) from the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) were selected as participants. The study uses a quantitative research design to examine the production of voiceless stops (/p/, /t/, /k/) and voiced stops (/b/, /d/, /?/). Additionally, it compares the stop production patterns between the BENL and IRK students. Data collection involved word-list and passage-reading tasks to elicit the target sounds. The word-list task results revealed that participants did not consistently produce the voiceless stops (/p/, /t/, /k/). Except for /k/ in word-medial and word-final positions which was often produced for other voiceless stops, some students frequently produced the stops while others frequently omitted the voiceless stops in all positions. However, in the word-final position, /t/ was often substituted. Similarly, the voiced stops (/b/, /d/, /?/) were inconsistently produced. While some students often produced the stops, others often omitted or substituted them. Notably, /b/ and /d/ in the word-final position were not often produced by most students while /d/ in the word-medial position was frequently produced by the least number of students. In the passage-reading task, most students consistently produced the voiceless and voiced stops in all word positions. A comparison between BENL and IRK students in the word-list task revealed significant differences in stop production. For voiceless stops, all or most IRK students frequently produced the sounds in all word positions. In contrast, all or most BENL students often omitted the stops in all positions. The exception was /k/ in word-medial and word-final positions which was often produced and /t/ in a word-final position which the BENL students frequently substituted. There were also significant differences in the production of voiced stops. Except for /d/ in a word-medial position which was often substituted by most students, all or most IRK students frequently produced /b/ and /?/ in word-initial and medial positions and /d/ in word-initial position. On the other hand, all BENL students frequently omitted these sounds in these positions. As for word-final position, most IRK students often produced /g/ but often substituted /b/ and /d/. Most or all BENL students omitted the voiced stops in word-final position. In the passage-reading task, although differences in stop production between BENL and IRK students were observed, these differences were not statistically significant. Generally, both groups frequently produced voiceless and voiced stops in all word positions, with few cases of frequent substitution. The findings indicate that having more formal exposure to the English language and English phonetics like the BENL students, did not guarantee more production of the stops. In addition, task type, word position and the kind of stops may affect the stop production of Kelantanese students. These findings contribute valuable insights for scholars and educators interested in understanding the stops in the Malaysian English variety.

The Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Land Degradation (REDD+) policy initiative under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted by the Indonesian government in 2007. Aimed at incentivizing developing countries to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and land use, the environmental and social goals of the REDD+ policy design enable a broad appeal in a policy arena prone to conflict. The Cancun Safeguards for REDD+ under UNFCCC Decision 1/CP.16 mandates that in undertaking REDD+ activities, “the full and effective participation of relevant stakeholders, in particular indigenous peoples and local communities, in the [REDD+] actions” (Principle 4) should be promoted and supported by program implementers. Using a qualitative case study method and Arnstein’s (1967) ‘Ladder of Citizen Participation’ conceptual framework, this study analyzes the typology of local participation in REDD+ implementation in the Indonesian context. It seeks to answer the following research questions: how is local participation realized in REDD+ implementation, to what extent is local participation involved, and what are the challenges constraining local participation in REDD+. The findings suggest that local community participation in the case study is characterized by the tokenism classification in Arnstein’s (1967) ‘Ladder of Citizen Participation’, reflected in the perceived power dynamics within REDD+ design and its inclusion and exclusion tendencies in its implementation. An implementation gap found in the East Kalimantan Results-Based Payment program is the limited scope of local actors in the procedural right to participation, Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), limited information on the role of local communities in implementation and limited timely information on benefit sharing distribution. The transformative potential of REDD+ in improving the participatory rights of local communities is possible at the local level through the facilitation of bottom-up, meaningful participation. Broadly, procedural aspects of participation force a minimum degree of openness. However, it also risks reproducing institutionally dominant business-as-usual perspectives of social justice if it does not improve local community rights by going beyond procedural indicators of participation.

Abstract Abstract: The role of youth in Malaysian politics has always been an issue of concern among the youth and adult citizens of Malaysia. Malaysians have long perceived the political involvement of the youth to be limited, causing disquiet among the Malaysians about the effect such limited participation will have on the future. However, in recent years, this perception has begun to change, with more and more Malaysians being aware of the increased political engagement of the youth. The objective of this study is to detail the opinions of Malaysian youth political activists regarding the competency of the government in handling the COVID-19 crisis in Malaysia since 2020, to identify the views of Malaysian youth leaders regarding their political tendencies beginning from 2020 and to understand how the Malaysian youth think the landscape of politics in Malaysia should change. Two theoretical frameworks were chosen to explain the findings of this study: the SIRDE model, which describes the increasing political activism of youth in Malaysia because of the frustration of the youth towards political actors within the government, and the theory of political socialization that explains the negative perception that the youths have towards the government. This study uses the qualitative method, specifically semi-structured interviews to gain pertinent data. According to the findings, the increased political participation of the youths is indeed influenced by how the Muhyiddin government handled the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. At the same time, social media usage and the implementation of the amendment to the minimum age of voting in Malaysia have been significantly responsible for intensifying youth political participation since 2020. R e g a r d i n g w h a t a s p e c t s o f t h e p o l i t i c a l l a n d s c a p e t h e youth leaders w i s h e s t o c h a n g e , t h e s e a s p e c t s a r e the strengthening of institutions that monitor government accountability and the enactment of policies that ensure a coalition government wouldn’t be allowed to collapse quickly. Spreading the proper knowledge through this study regarding the role of the youth in politics would increase their relevance in Malaysian political discourses. From there, Malaysia c o u l d better prepare for its future's long-term development by ensuring that the future generation of policymakers feels connected with the current political landscape.

This research is on speech acts in computer-mediated communication (CMC), particularly Internet Relay Chat (IRC). IRC is classified as a synchronous communication which has its own set of rules that sometimes differ from that of both written and spoken communication. The researcher has based her study on a Malaysian based chat room, chat.mystar.com. Forty pages of chat sessions were printed for data, and these were analyzed word for word to seek types of speech acts used by chatters. The research sought the answers to two questions. The first one is pertaining to what the range of use of speech acts in CMC is. It was discovered that the range of speech acts is quite limited, though topics of conversation did play a big role in the use of speech acts by the chatters. The second question is whether there are any particular types of speech acts that are predominant. The researcher found out that speech acts of expressives and directives had predominance over other speech acts, but, again, this was based on the topics discussed by the chatters. These findings show that speech acts do exist in CMC, but the use of the speech acts are very topic based.

This study is on the analysis of strategies of question formation, with particular reference to the Malay ESL discourse. For the purpose of the study, the researcher analyzed the Malay ESL discourse in the natural setting observed in an academic environment where ESL discourse is most likely to occur. This includes classrooms, university cafeterias, administration offices, elevators and dormitories. Observation was made two hours daily for a period of seven months. Data was collected and recorded in a very discreet manner so as to ensure the accuracy of information taken in a natural setting. The study seeks to answer two research questions. The first is "What are the most common types of questions found in the spoken discourse of Malay ESL speakers in formal and informal environment?" The findings show that the most common pattern that usually occurred in the discourse is that there were more declarative statements than interrogative forms used by the participants in producing questions, especially in informal discourse. Moreover, the participant's use of tag questions differred from standard English. The analysis shows that most of the time speakers used "is it" in place of other tags regardless of the verb from in the preceding clause. The second research question is "Do these ways of asking questions differ according to gender?" It seems that in terms of declarative and interrogative patterns, there was no difference between female and male participants in the question formation. However, findings revealed that there is a difference in the use of tag questions between male and female subjects. Female participants used "is it" more than male participants in all settings observed. Findings also show that there are other strategies adopted by Malay ESL speakers in their discourse. It is illustrated in Malay ESL discourse, questions have certain roles with regards to language choice and context-related usage.

The study stems from the observation made by the researcher that a considerable number of Muslim teenagers tend to adopt behavioral patterns deviating from the norms of the Malay-Muslim culture. As teenagers are susceptible to media influence. This study attempts to examine the contents of Malaysian television entertainment in order to find-'out whether there are elements of values and behavior portrayed on television which may not be compatible with Qur'anic moral and ethical values (re: Islamic values). This study analyzes Malay dramas aired or/channels three and nine on Malaysian television from January to December 2008. It focuses on the values that Malay dramas present to teenagers. From the analysis of themes, social issues and characterization it is clear that there are elements in Malay dramas that may adversely affect the value system of Muslim teenagers. It is also noteworthy that television entertainment has become an important source of information and socialization of Malaysian teenagers today.